


Adamant

by MYuzuki



Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: (but only on occasion lol), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Crowe Altius Deserves Better, Crowe Altius Lives, Crowe has a bit of a potty mouth in the first chapter but given the circumstances I don't blame her, For Want of a Nail, Gen, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016), Literary References & Allusions, Nyx Ulric Lives, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Swearing, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 11:31:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17621582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MYuzuki/pseuds/MYuzuki
Summary: Adamant - (Adj.) Utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals, urgings, et cetera. Too hard to cut, break, or pierce. Synonyms: unyielding, resolute, stubborn, determined, unshakable.A Messenger of the Astrals decides that they don’t agree with what destiny has in store for the Kingdom of Lucis and decides to send one of their Sentinels -a formerly human woman whose lifespan has been extended with magic- to intercede.To the surprise of even the Messenger, however, this Sentinel chooses to go back not to Prince Noctis’s battle against Ardyn Izunia or even to the murder of the Prince’s father, King Regis.Instead, this Sentinel - a woman two thousand years away from her own time- elects to go back to before the Emperor of Niflheim came to Insomnia on the pretense of signing a peace treaty.Instead, Gabija chooses to start her work with the Kingsglaive; specifically, saving the life of a mage named Crowe.





	1. Intercession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Intercession - (Noun) The action of intervening on behalf of another (typically someone who is experiencing difficulty or trouble). Synonym: Intervention.

 

* * *

_The Messenger looks at her like she’s grown a second head. “I give you the entire time-stream to choose from, and ****this****  is your choice for how to circumvent Fate?” _

_“Yes.”_

_“Why?”_

_“Why not?”_

_A sigh. “Need I remind you how important this is? Not just to me personally, but for the entire kingdom of Lucis.”_

_“I’m aware of how high the stakes are, yes.”_

_“So why start by saving her, of all people?”_

_“...Because she deserves better.” A pause. “They all deserve better.” Because death is one thing, but death because of a betrayal is something else entirely._

_“You’re letting your own experiences affect your judgment,” the Messenger warns._

_She snorts. “Of course I’m letting my own experiences affect my judgment,” she replies, amused. “That’s what experience is for.” Then she looks directly at the Messenger, expression serious. “Trust me,” she says. “This is the right choice. I’m sure of it.”_

_Another sigh, this time one of resignation. “Very well, then. We shall try it your way.”_

* * *

Crowe had been proud to be chosen by Drautos for the mission. It was a top level mission, after all, and very possibly the most important mission she’d ever received: escort Princess Lunafreya Nox Fleuret out of Tenebrae and get her to safety.

It was an assignment that could change _everything_ , that’s what the captain had told her.

She’d believed him, had been proud to be chosen for this classified mission that could alter the course of the war between Lucis and Niflheim, had been eager to retrieve the Princess and return with her to Insomnia.

It’s hard to feel proud or eager now, though, when she can taste the salty tang of blood in her mouth and it feels like fiery claws are tearing at her guts. She’d been coasting along on her motorcycle when suddenly a shot had cracked through the air; she’d felt the sharp bite of the bullet barely a second after the sound had registered in her brain, and then she’d been crashing down onto the road.

Now she’s laying on the dusty asphalt, one hand uselessly clutching at the hole in her abdomen as she gasps for breath. She tries to sit up and look around, because she needs to _move_ , needs to see who shot her, but that increases the fiery pain a hundredfold and she collapses back onto the ground with a strangled curse.

As it turns out, however, she doesn’t need to expend any effort to discover who her attacker is; he comes waltzing right up to her to gloat.

“I’ll be damned; you’re still alive. You're tougher than I gave you credit for, I guess.”

_Bastard_ , she thinks as Luche Lazarus strides over to her side, a smug smile stretching his lips as he looks down at her. “Fucking traitor,” she snarls, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Luche’s smirk twists in distaste as the blood and spit splatters across his perfectly shined boots. “Now, Crowe, there’s no need for that. It’s nothing personal, really.”

Between the bullet rattling around between her ribs and the hot, agonizing pain sweeping through her entire torso, it feels pretty damn personal to Crowe. “Why?” she asks anyway, because she may be dying but she deserves to at least know why Luche has turned another Glaive this way.

“Because this is the only way to get justice,” Luche replies, and it could be the blood loss impacting her cognitive function but Crowe can’t quite seem to find the logic in that response.

“Justice?” she echoes, coughing up another mouthful of blood. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Luche scowls down at her and aims a light kick at her stomach. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” he says, speaking over her hoarse scream of agony. “You’ve always been too loyal for your own good, Crowe. And what loyalty does that so-called king deserve, when he lets the Empire just take away our lands without even trying to stop it? He deserves to know what it’s like to lose everything. His precious son, his royal power, __all of it__. And once he’s dealt with, we can move forward.”

Crowe’s vision is going dark and fuzzy at the edges, and there’s a faint ringing in her ears that can’t possibly be good. Breathing alone is taking a monumental effort right now and speaking should probably be impossible, all things considered.

But she’s still a Kingsglaive, even as she’s sprawled out on a dusty back-road dying from blood loss and organ failure. And she’ll be damned if she goes out with a whimper; that’s not who she is, not now, not ever.

“You,” she tells Luche, “are so full of shit.”

Luche’s handsome face twists into an ugly expression, all malice and hate. “Good-bye, Crowe,” he says flat, and raises the gun in his hand.

He points it right at her heart, and Crowe knows that even if by some miracle she could survive the first shot she’d taken, there’s no way she can live through a direct shot to the heart. She sucks in what will probably be the last breath she ever takes, and stares right at him, putting as much condemnation into her gaze as she can.

“Go fuck yourself,” she says, fury thrumming in every single syllable.

Luche shakes his head like she’s being ridiculous and his finger starts to squeeze the trigger.

Before he can complete the shot, though, a bright orange fireball comes hurtling out of nowhere to slam into his shoulder. He drops the gun with a shout of pain as the sleeve of his coat catches on fire, the fire eating first into the cloth and then into his flesh.

Crowe’s vision is dimming, with consciousness flickering in and out like a guttering candle, so she misses parts of what comes next. She’s pretty sure there’s a woman, though; her hair is bright like the fireball she’d thrown and she leaves Luche in an unconscious heap on the ground to come to Crowe’s side instead.

“Try to hang on, okay?” the strange woman says, kneeling over Crowe with an intense expression on her face. “I’m not the best when it comes to healing magic, but I think I can manage enough to stabilize you. You just need to _hold on_ , understand?”

_No_ , Crowe thinks vaguely, _I don’t understand _.__  She doesn’t understand what’s happening at all. All she knows is that Luche is a traitor and that she’s dying.

Then the woman’s putting her hands over Crowe’s gunshot wound and it’s a bit like someone has unleashed a lightning storm under her skin.

She screams, the sound tearing out of her throat and tasting like blood even as her vision flares white and her ears fill with white noise.

“-sorry,” the woman is saying when Crowe’s hearing finally cuts back in, her heart pounding so fast that it’s skipping beats. “I’m really sorry, I know it’s uncomfortable, but triage magic is the best I can do right now. I need to get you patched up enough to move you somewhere safe, and that means fast and dirty healing magic.”

Crowe doesn’t quite understand what the hell this woman’s talking about; healing magic? No one’s been able to successfully use healing magic in its true form in centuries, not without attaching the healing effects to an offensive elemental spell first. But then the hot pain in her abdomen eases up into something that is closer to “excruciating” than “agonizing” and even that little bit of improvement is enough to make her amenable to whatever it is this woman is doing.

Before she can open her mouth (to say what exactly she doesn’t know), however, her body apparently decides that she’s had enough excitement for the day and she blacks out.

The last thing she hears before unconsciousness fully claims her is the woman’s voice, promising her that everything’s going to be fine.

_But why_ , Crowe wants to ask. _Why do you care what happens to me? Why are you trying to save me?_

_Why are you here?_


	2. To Survive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Survive - (Verb) To remain alive or continue to live after the cessation of something, the death of someone, or the occurrence of some event; to endure or live through an adversity, affliction, et cetera. Synonyms: Endure, persist, subsist, withstand.

The first thing Nyx hears when he enters the building is Libertus shouting.

"What do you mean, she's  _missing_?" his friend demands, leaning heavily on his crutch as he scowls at the Missing Personnel representative he's speaking with.

"I mean exactly what I said, Glaive Ostium," the officer says coolly. "Glaive Altius has not reported in since leaving on her mission and none of our reconnaissance operatives have been able to locate her. Since her disappearance coincides with the critical injury of another Glaive who was in the vicinity of her last known location, regulations dictate that I inform her listed next of kin of her disappearance under suspicious circumstances."

"What the hell are you talking about, 'suspicious circumstances'?" Libertus takes an angry step in the official's direction, but Nyx jogs forward to intercede before things can escalate much further; it won't help anyone if his best friend strangles an officer, after all.

"Hey, take it easy, big guy," Nyx says, quickly sliding in between the two men. "What's going on?"

Libertus spends another moment glaring at the Personnel officer before finally looking at Nyx. "They're declaring Crowe missing-in-action," he says, voice tight with emotion. "Apparently she never made it to her mission destination or reported in after leaving, not even at her scheduled check-in times."

A knot of foreboding forms in his stomach; it isn't like Crowe to go radio-silent without forewarning."Why are we only hearing about this now?" Nyx asks, turning to face the officer. "Crowe left on her mission five days ago."

The officer hesitates, then answers with, "We were attempting to verify her whereabouts or ascertain the reason for her disappearance before alerting her emergency contacts of the situation. Given the suspicious circumstances, we thought-"

"That's the second time you've used that phrase," Nyx interjects, careful to keep his voice even. "Care to share what exactly you find so suspicious?"

The officer chews on his lip for a moment, indecisive, before folding like a house of cards under the combined weight of Nyx's and Libertus's hard stares. "As I said before, our scouts did manage to track her up to a certain point. At that location, however, we found not Crowe but another Glaive who has been badly wounded."

Nyx does a mental tally in his head and frowns; other than Crowe, only a handful of Glaives are deployed outside of Insomnia right now and  _none_  of them should have been anywhere along her route to Tenebrae. "Which Glaive did you find out there?"

The Missing Personnel officer hesitates again, and Libertus finally seems to lose what little restraint he'd been exhibiting. "Just tell us already!" Nyx's friend snaps, his free hand clenching into a fist in a blatant threat.

The officer swallows hard and glances at Nyx as if asking for help.

Nyx just arches an eyebrow expectantly and waits.

"Luche Lazarus," the other man says at last, resignation plain in his tone. "We found him at the site of where we lost Crowe's trail, along with signs of combat."

"What sort of 'signs of combat'?" Nyx asks.

"Does it really matter?" the officer asks tiredly.

"Yes," Nyx says firmly, because it _does_. He's been in fights against monsters, humans, and daemons, and each type of fight has different signs; if they know what Crowe was fighting out there, they can figure out her odds of survival. Maybe even figure out where she ran to for cover if they're clever enough.

(He's refusing to think about how high the odds are in favor of her being dead. He knows that she'd been out there alone, and he knows that even a mage of Crowe's skill level isn't guaranteed to be able to handle every opponent.

Even so, he refuses to even consider the possibility of her not being alive. Crowe is a survivor; she has been ever since she was just a little punk kid with more attitude than common sense. Nyx will not accept that she's gone, not until he sees her body for himself.)

"The recon reports mentioned large amounts of blood in the area," the Missing Personnel officer says in response to Nyx's inquiry. "They had no way of determining whose blood it was, but there was quite a lot of it. There were also scorch marks across the asphalt; we're currently operating under the assumption that magical fire is responsible, but we don't know if the fire was conjured by Crowe or her assailant."

"And where does Luche come in?" Libertus demands. "What was he doing out there?"

"We don't know," the other man admits reluctantly. "He's sustained critical burns across a significant portion of his body and hasn't regained consciousness since being brought to the critical care ward. We were hoping that he might shed some light on what transpired out there," he adds, "but the physicians don't seem certain of when he'll wake up, or even if he will."

Nyx adds that up with what little else they've learned about the situation and decides that he doesn't like the end result very much.

"Thanks for your help," he says absently to the officer as he turns away, his mind already skipping ahead to how fast he can ask for personal leave to get out there himself; he's from a long line of hunters and trackers, and he's pretty damn sure he can track Crowe better than anyone from the Missing Personnel department (especially considering the department's abysmal track record when it actually comes to  _finding_  the various soldiers who have gone missing over the years).

"We should go talk to Luche," Libertus says, following after him like a second shadow, his injured leg barely even slowing him down even with the cast and crutch.

"I don't think there's much point in that," Nyx remarks.

"But if he was the last person to see her-"

"You heard what that guy said," Nyx says, gentling his tone as much as he can. "Luche is practically in a coma, and they have no idea whether he'll wake up or not. He's in no condition to tell us anything, so it would be a waste of time to go."

"You want to go yourself," Libertus realizes, lowering his voice as they leave the building. "To where Crowe disappeared."

Nyx's only response is a slight nod.

"Is that such a good idea?" Libertus asks worriedly, hurrying to keep up with Nyx as they leave the Kingsglaive compound and start weaving through the foot traffic of the city streets. "I mean, you've already been demoted to gate duty. Is leaving the city right now the best choice, when tensions are so high?"

"Probably not," Nyx admits. "But I can't just sit here, not when Crowe needs help." He's loyal to the Kingsglaive and loyal to the king, but Crowe is more than a friend; at this point, she's _family,_ and Nyx can't afford to lose what little family he has left. And he's sure that Captain Drautos will understand that, once Nyx has a chance to speak with him. 

"...You really think she's still alive?" Libertus asks, his voice wavering slightly.

"Yes," Nyx says immediately, willing it to be true despite the odds.

"I hope you're right," Libertus says, then shakes his head angrily. "What the hell are we going to do if she's-"

"She's not," Nyx says sharply.

"You can't know for sure," Libertus argues, eyes dark with unshed tears. "Gods, I still remember the first time I saw her, back when we were all just kids. Scrawny little thing, all covered in dirt. Not a friend in the world. But those eyes…damn, there was something about those eyes." He sucks in a shaky breath. "I would have given her the whole world if I could've; she deserved better than what she got."

"Stop talking about her like we've already lost her," Nyx snaps. "There's a chance that she's still alive."

"Not much of a chance," Libertus says morosely, but there's still a tiny spark of hope in his eyes in spite of his words.

"No," Nyx agrees, "but I'll take what I can get. Now hurry up; there are some supplies I want to pick up before we leave."

Hopefully the time it takes to buy those supplies will allow him to think of a good way to persuade Drautos to let them leave without too much hassle; if the Glaive captain denies them a chance to find her, Nyx isn't sure what he or Libertus will do. Nyx is hardly a deserter but he's not going to leave Crowe out there alone without at least trying to bring her home, and he knows for a fact that Libertus values Crowe more than he values his position as a Glaive.

(Nyx doesn't even want to think about what either of them might do if they don't find Crowe alive.)


End file.
